It took days to actually get to Kathmandu. A 14-1/2 hour non-stop United flight from Chicago to Hong Kong, four hour layover, three more air hours to Singapore for a one-night stay. It was impossible to do the entire journey, Chicago-Kathmandu in two days without misconnecting somewhere, ergo, one night in Singapore. (Read some of my prior entries, Visiting Singapore for more details on Singapore.)

This time, we stayed at Le Meridien Hotel, in the heart of Orchard Road and all the shopping malls. Feeling good after a fast seven-hour deep sleep, it was time for breakfast and time to experiment with the MRT, Singapore’s super fast and clean transportation system. Give public transportation a try in countries that are safe and clean. It isn’t necessary to spend a fortune on taxi’s…

MRT’d to Chinatown, 2$Singapore dollars there and then you put your token back in the machine after the trip and get 1$Singapore dollar back! Such a deal. Watch the video above on how to use the MRT. So easy…

No matter how many times we’ve visited Singapotr, there is always another area to see. Walked down Robinson Street, through a different Hawker’s Center with an unbelievable selection of food (Singapore licenses all their stands) and browed a Chinese traditional medicine shop. Completely pooped and no where near the MRT, hailed a cab back to the hotel to collapse.

Tonight was leg #2 on the way to Kathmandu, the Singapore Airlines night flight from Singapore-Delhi with another one-night stopover at the Radisson Hotel Delhi, close to the Indira Ghandi International Airport. Marcus Cardoza and the rest of the Radisson staff went out of their way to help us reconfirm the Jet Airways tickets, drove us back to the airport and did whatever they could to minimize major anxiety. The reason for that? Two days before leaving Chicago, Travelocity sent an e-mail saying…”your flight is not confirmed…please contact the airline…”

You try to contact an airline based in India! (It would have been worth paying the extra $30 to ticket through my travel agent on this one.) The Travelocity 1-800 staff finally, through Delta, confirmed that…yes, we were confirmed. Would you be confident that we actually had seats on this notoriously oversold flight? Not us. That’s why we appreciated all the extra help from Radisson. Thanks, Radisson. By the way, they also had a wonderful breakfast buffet. Got to enjoy every morsel before leaving on the flight to Kathmandu.

small section of Radisson’s breakfast buffet, Delhi
India security is unbelievable. You must have a tag on every carry-on, all checked luggage is inspected and stamped, your carry-ons are inspected and stamped, then you are patted-down and your boarding pass stamped. Before boarding the aircraft, armed personnel check every stamped tag before you can get on the plane. Very long and time-consuming security.

If possible, ask for seats on the left side of the plane for mountain views. We didn’t get them but didn’t care. As we gave the boarding passes to the Jet Airways attendant before heading to the jetway, she asked us to wait a moment…took the old boarding passes…and gave us new Business Class boarding passes. Shock! Economy was oversold and they must upgrade people who belong to their Jet Airways Club. Note: Join different airline clubs — you never know!

on the way to Kathmandu, Nepal